“Stop!  Stop!” the music instantly silenced at the fierce demanding.

              “Hyesung, you’re off again,” the leader turned to the slimmer man in annoyance.  Hyesung bowed his head slightly, out of embarrassment and fear.

              “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, slightly irritated at the older male’s reaction.  Eric released a deep sigh and ran his hands through his sleek, black hair.

              “Is something wrong, you’ve been making one mistake after another today,” he was trying to sound understanding in case something was wrong with his friend of 14 years.

              “I’ve just been having a bad day,” the annoyance was evident in Hyesung’s voice.  Eric released another sigh, knowing that Hyesung didn't wish to continue the conversation, and turned back around to face the mirror in their practice room.  He gave a wary look to the dancer at the CD player and the man smiled knowingly back as he started the track for “Venus” again.

              After a long practice of the members pretending they didn’t notice Hyesung’s mistakes and Hyesung becoming more and more frustrated, the members began packing up to leave at 1 A.M.  Junjin approached Hyesung with wary footsteps.

              “Hyung…Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?” Hyesung felt extremely frustrated with himself at the moment, but he didn’t want to take out his pent up anger on his best friend.

              “It’s really nothing Jin-ah, I’ve just been having a really awful day,” Hyesung replied with honesty, putting on a fake smile to hide his true feelings.   Junjin grinned with relief after looking at Hyesung’s smile.  He started laughing and the cheesy smile immediately slipped away from Hyesung’s face.

              “What?” Hyesung was confused by Junjin’s sudden outburst.

              “Your smile was so fake!  Haha!  Hyung, you’re so obvious!  You’re like an open book!” Junjin guffawed.  Hyesung scowled and tried really hard to be irritated at the younger man, but soon found himself laughing along to his infectious laughter.  It took a little while, but eventually the two men were able to control their chuckling.  Hyesung noticed the change in the mood of the room as the other members calmed down with him, destroying the tense atmosphere.  With a last grin at Junjin and the other guys, Hyesung began walking towards the door of the studio.

              “See you guys later,” He called and then exited.

              Hyesung quickly reached his car as exhaustion started to set in.  He unlocked the door and hauled himself inside without thinking.  With his hands on the wheel, he released a large yawn.  He shook his head in a futile attempt to banish the sleepiness.  Hyesung started the car and pulled out of the parking structure.  Once on the highway, Hyesung could feel the heaviness of his eyelids and fought hard against the urge to close them.  Hyesung’s battle with fatigue momentarily distracted him and he wasn’t able to react fast enough when a car swerved into his lane.

~~~~~

              Eric let out a small whimper as he revealed a rather pathetic looking beanie from his bag that had begun to unravel and looked more like spaghetti than a hat.

              “What’s that?” Dongwan slung his bag over his shoulder, as he too got ready to leave the practice room.

              “This is the hat I got from you guys right after our debut,” Eric looked sadly at the clump of yarn.  Minwoo jumped up.

              “Oh yeah!  We all got each other a debut gift,” he chirped.

              “I can’t believe you still have that, I lost mine’s years ago,” Junjin commented after removing his sweat soaked shirt.

              “After 14 years, it has finally started to break,” Eric looked sadly at the black beanie.

              “Hopefully this isn’t a foreboding for our next album,” Andy zipped his duffle and pulled out his car keys.

              “Or a foreboding of any kind,” Eric commented as he gathered the beanie’s strings and stuffed them back into his bag.

~~~~~

              Hyesung managed to open his eyes with difficulty.  Red lights were flashing painfully and helped to worsen his horrible headache.  Hyesung scratched at the asphalt beneath his fingers as he tried to figure out what had happened.  He had been at dance practice with the members, and then…  The car!  He was in the car and…was so tired.  Hyesung remembered opening his eyes and seeing bright headlights coming straight at him.  An accident.  His heart skipped a beat and he tried to gain his bearings.  His senses began functioning again.  He could now hear the panicked voices around him and as his vision cleared, he could make out the shape of his car upside down, and much farther away from where he was located.  Was I thrown out?  Hyesung tried to lift his head from the ground and a splitting headache resulted.  He whimpered loudly and tried to curl up, and then an even more intense pain split through his body.  Hyesung cried out as the small movement of his back had set his entire body in pain.  Except for…his legs.  A paramedic rushed over after hearing Hyesung scream.

              “Sir, are you okay sir?” He began motioning towards the ambulance to bring a stretcher.

              “My legs…” Hyesung mumbled in shock.

              “What was that sir?” The paramedic leaned in until his ear was right beside Hyesung’s mouth.

              “My legs…I can’t feel my legs…” The paramedic paused and realized what that could possibly mean.  The paramedic immediately became more urgent.  He turned his back to Hyesung and began yelling for the stretcher.  The pain that racked Hyesung’s body had become too much and his eyes began to close.  The paramedic turned around and noticed the man losing consciousness.

              “Oh no no!  You have to stay with me sir!  Sir?” The paramedic lightly hit Hyesung’s cheek in an attempt to keep him awake.

              “!” He swore.

              “I need that fricking stretcher!” Two other paramedics finally answered his desperate calls and came running with a stretcher between them.  They noticed the steady stream of blood trickling down the victim’s forehead and began rushing to lug his body onto the stretcher.  The paramedic already on the scene stopped them.

              “Careful,” his eyes shined with pity, “we might be dealing with a paralysis victim,” he glanced down sadly at the man lying unconscious on the road.

~~~~~

              Eric had been the last to leave the studio in order to make sure everything had been locked up properly.  The elevator door beeped, indicating to Eric that he had reached his floor of the apartment building.  He sluggishly dragged himself to his unit and began fumbling for his keys.  Eric glanced over to the unit next to his, Hyesung’s apartment, and noticed the forgotten bag of rubbish outside the door.  He remembered Hyesung commenting on leaving it there this morning as a reminder to take it to the dump shoot when he got back from dance practice.  Eric groaned and left his door to knock on Hyesung’s.  No answer.  Was he sleeping already?  He knocked again, still no answer.  Eric took out his phone and dialed his neighbor’s cell.  It rang twice before it was answered.

              “Sungie, your-“ Eric groggily started to explain.

              “Hello, this is Mr. Jung Pil Kyo’s phone,” a woman answered on the other end.

              “Hello?” The exhaustion from earlier became replaced by confusion.

              “Who is this?”

              “Hello…” There was a pause as the lady checked the caller ID.

              “Eric, Mr. Jung has been admitted to Gangnam Hospital and is currently undergoing surgery,” Eric nearly dropped his phone in shock.

              “Hospital?  Surgery?” Eric was trying desperately to digest what he had just heard.

              “Please calm down sir, Mr. Jung was involved in a serious car accident a few hours ago, he is currently in serious condition,” the lady mechanically explained on the other side of the line.  Eric regained composure and immediately grabbed his duffle and sped down the hall towards the elevator once again.

              “I’m coming over now, my name is Mun Jung Hyuk, and I will sign off as his guardian,” Eric hung up and punched the button for the parking garage.  On his way down Eric decided to let the other members know in order to avoid the wrath of said members that would follow if he didn’t.  The first person he was able to reach was Junjin.

              “What is it hyung?” Junjin’s voice held annoyance and curiosity within it.

              “Jinnie, are you driving right now?” Eric slipped into business mode.

              “Uh, yeah, but I’m pulling into my parking structure now,” Confusion became evident in the younger man’s voice.

              “Tell me when you’re done parking,” There was immediate silence as Junjin complied with the leader’s demands.  After a few moments, Junjin came back on the line.

              “Okay, what is it?” Eric decided that it was best to give it to Junjin straight instead of dancing around the subject.

              “Don’t freak out too much okay?  Hyesung is at the hospital right now, he was involved in a car accident and is in serious condition,” God, hearing it from his own mouth forced Eric to come to terms with the reality of the situation.

              “W-Wh-WHAT?!!!” Junjin yelled into the receiver.  Eric got off of the elevator at the parking lot and swiftly walked to his car.

              “You heard me, I’m on my way to the hospital right now.  Once you settle down, it’s up to you to tell the others.  Apparently he’s at Gangnam Hospital, you and the guys can decide what you want to do from there,” Eric hung up already knowing that Junjin wasn’t capable of holding a conversation anymore.

              Eric floored it on his way to the hospital.  He tried to distract himself from imagining the worst, but it was difficult with so little information on Hyesung’s condition.  Sungie, please be okay.  Eric gripped the steering wheel hard as the hospital came into view.  After parking in the first open spot he found.  Eric jogged to the entrance and straight to the receptionist’s desk.  The lady sitting there jumped, startled at Eric’s entrance.

              “Jung Pil Kyo,” Eric said curtly.

              “Uh, he’s still in surgery,” The woman pointed down the hall, still recovering from the shock.  Eric bowed his head slightly and ran down to the surgery room.  The light above the door indicated that a surgery was in process, so Eric was forced to wait.